It’s hard to not be impressed lately by Amazon.com Inc. Shares are up 14% year-to-date, more than the broader market, and up about 60% from the lows of around $480 in February.

And of course, Amazon
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was one of the top performers in the S&P 500
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last year with a return of roughly 120%.

For those waiting for this pick to cool off, that February dip was just about the only opportunity in almost two years of seemingly constant appreciation as the stock continues to set new all-time highs.

The bears have the same old argument about Amazon’s forward price-to-earnings ratio being too high (it’s still north of 70), as well as some new ones now that the growth rate in the much-vaunted Amazon Web Services division is starting to cool.

However Amazon on balance remains one of the best investments on Wall Street right now. Here are seven reasons why:

Serious profits: Amazon’s second-quarter numbers, out a few weeks back, were mighty impressive. Earnings of $1.78 per share showed it can indeed make a nice profit for shareholders, and as MarketWatch Tech Editor Jeremy Owens pointed out on the day of the report, second-quarter net income was “up more than 900% (!) from the same quarter a year ago, and more than 50% higher than analyst estimates.” This comes after a smash first-quarter report that also showed robust profitability, with net income of $1.07 per share that almost doubled Wall Street forecasts.

AWS power: A big reason for those profits is, of course, cloud-computing arm Amazon Web Services. This fast-growing division gets a lot of press for its revenue expansion, up 58% in the second quarter and running at about $10 billion over the past four quarters. However, the real appeal for investors should be the profit potential. Last quarter, AWS posted higher net income than the company’s entire e-commerce segment.

Yes, the growth rate of this cloud-computing business has cooled off, but name another $10 billion business growing at this clip. Furthermore, AWS clearly is the dominant player in the space; a recent Goldman Sachs report puts AMZN cloud revenue at five times that of Microsoft Corp.
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and an amazing 15 times that of Alphabet Inc.
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Everyone’s upgrading: After the strong performance of Amazon lately, it has been one big upgrade after another on Wall Street. MKM recently reiterated its buy rating and upped its target to $995 — about 30% higher from here. And in the wake of earnings, other firms from Wedbush to Goldman Sachs have all upgraded Amazon stock with a target north of $900 a share.

Primed With Prime: Wholesale club Costco Wholesale Corp.
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reported in its annual filing for 2015 that it has about 81.3 million members. Consider that Consumer Intelligence Research Partners recently estimated that Prime is hot on Costco’s heels with 69 million members — which, at $99 annually, adds up to more than $6.8 billion in baseline revenue for the tech company. Not only is this a great stream of cash, but it is also a pipeline of customers who can continue to support the Amazon ecosystem.

Don’t sweat Jet: Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
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just acquired e-commerce company Jet.com for $3.3 billion in a clear shot across Amazon’s bow. However, Amazon investors hardly have to worry anytime soon. According to the a recent eMarketer report, Amazon commands over $79 billion, or 74% of the total U.S. e-commerce market, while Wal-Mart does just $13 billion in sales, or slightly under 3%. The Jet buyout may juice that and provide some much-needed digital know-how at Wal-Mart, but it has a whole lot of ground to make up.

Kindle on fire: While CEO Jeff Bezos has admitted that the Kindle line of devices is sold at cost, investors shouldn’t discount the growing hardware might of Amazon. Research firm IDC pegged the Fire tablet as No. 3 in the world after a strong holiday quarter that saw a half-million of the devices shipped. Since then, however, sales have been even more impressive as Amazon saw over 5,400% year-over- year growth in first-quarter unit sales to tally 2.2 million Kindles sold, by IDC’s count … then a 1,200% year-over-year improvement in the second quarter to move 1.6 million units in those three months! Yes, the tablets don’t do much for Amazon’s financials right now. But the more people Amazon hooks on its hardware and ecosystem, the more potential it has for follow-on sales of content down the road.

What’s next? Lost in all the fireworks about profitability, Prime and Amazon Web Services may be the most bullish argument of all for Amazon — that the company is still growing aggressively. In the company’s second-quarter earnings release, Bezos pointed out a big push into India, “where we launched a new AWS Region, introduced Prime with unlimited free shipping, and announced that Prime Video is coming soon, offering Prime members in India exclusive access to Amazon Original Series and Movies.” More recently, maybe you’ve heard of Prime Air and Amazon’s aims to operate a fleet of cargo planes. This kind of vision and expansion means investors certainly haven’t see the last of what this disruptive tech company has to offer.

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